Border collie helps stop plane damage at McConnell

January 18, 2010 4:55:19 pm | by Rick Plumlee/The Wichita Eagle | Wichita Paws |

Vasi, a 3-year-old border collie, sprinted through the stubble of a corn field just east of McConnell Air Force Base, her eyes squarely set on a large flock of Canada geese.

The geese soared away, heading farther east to look for a quieter feast.

At least that's what Lauren Caister, Vasi's handler, hoped as the two patrolled McConnell's five-square-mile perimeter.

"What we don't want is for them to fly back toward the base," Caister said. "We want to get them out of the flight pattern."

Airports and other Air Force bases around the country are trying to do the same thing.

Indications are that 2009 will set a record for bird strikes on civilian aircraft. The federal government estimates there were about 10,000 strikes last year, a 33 percent increase from the previous high of 7,507 in 2007.

Bird and other wildlife strikes to U.S. aircraft — both civil and military — cost more than $600 million in damage annually, according to the Bird Strike Committee USA, an organization of civilian and government volunteers.

The Air Force estimates its aircraft sustain about 5,000 bird strikes annually, costing about $50 million in damages.

More than 200 people have also been killed worldwide as a result of bird strikes since 1988.

Disaster was narrowly avoided a year ago Friday when a U.S. Airways plane with 155 passengers and crew hit a flock of Canada geese shortly after takeoff from New York's LaGuardia Airport and crash landed in the Hudson River. No lives were lost.

In the past, the government has estimated that only 20 to 30 percent of bird strikes on civilian aircraft have been reported. The Hudson incident has heightened awareness and increased reporting, which may have something to do with the projected record in 2009.

But Caister, whose Texas-based company, Birdstrike Control Program, is contracted by the Department of Defense to deal with bird and wildlife problems at McConnell, said that's not the only driving factor.

"Bird populations are on the rise," she said. "Also planes are more abundant, faster and quieter.

"Birds don't have enough warning to get out of the way in time. They'll get out of the way if they have enough time."

Proactive, not reactive

Solutions to bird strikes have been haphazard.

Just last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that it planned to poison about 15,000 starlings near the University Park Airport in State College, Pa. —more than three years after a commercial airliner ran into a flock of the birds after takeoff.

Airports and air bases use a variety of means to keep birds away from their planes, sometimes firing noisemakers or using birds of prey to scare off flocks.

"But the most common method is lethal control... usually shooting them down," said Caister, who has a master's degree in animal behavior. "Not very effective. You can sit on an airfield all day and shoot at every bird that comes by, but they'll keep coming."

She said noisemakers also don't work because birds are only temporarily frightened and will return.

"Our program is to try to prevent them from coming in the first place, being proactive instead of reactive," she said.

McConnell's is one of the few success stories.

Although flights have increased about 10 percent since Birdstrike Control began handling McConnell in May 2007 and reporting methods have become stricter, bird strikes have been reduced by one third.

Last year, 102 strikes were reported by McConnell aircraft.

Air Force bases began taking bird strikes seriously not long after tragedy struck at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska, in 1995. All 24 crew members were killed when an E-3 Sentry AWACS ran into three dozen geese shortly after takeoff and crashed.

McConnell began trying to control birds in the late 1990s. The last significant damage to one of the base's aircraft was in 2006, when a plane ran into three snow geese just east of Andover at 3,000 feet. Despite one goose going into an engine, the plane was able to land safely.

Matching wits

But McConnell's previous attempts at dealing with the birds didn't include dogs or patrolling the airfield's perimeter until Birdstrike Control took over.

Caister has been at McConnell since October 2008, and Vasi arrived last March after spending a year in training.

They face a tall task.

Although other birds create problems, Canada geese are the main threat to the airfield. Averaging 8 pounds, they're big enough to smash a plane's windshield and act like a large rock when ingested by an engine.

Wichita has about 3,000 resident Canada geese that hang around all year. But that number swells to 30,000 in the winter when migratory geese call Wichita home for the winter.

"Wichita is smack in the middle of the central migratory route," Caister said.

Vasi, whose name is the acronym for Visual Approach Slope Indicator — a runway lighting system — is up to the challenge.

Caister said Vasi is much faster than the previous dog, Jet, and doesn't mind going into the frigid ponds in nearby housing developments to chase geese away.

"Border collies are highly intelligent and live to work," Caister said. "Vasi doesn't want praise or a treat. She wants to keep working."

Border collies are ideally suited for controlling birds because of the way they approach the birds.

Unlike most dogs, which go after the whole flock and scatter geese and other birds every which way, the border collie directs the flock in one direction and stays with the birds to make sure they don't land again.

"That's a predatory tactic," Caister said. "The geese think they're a wolf."

A typical winter day for Caister and Vasi includes checking to make sure there are no geese on the runways. But their biggest chore is working the perimeter.

Because geese generally are in flight one hour before and after sunrise and sunset, McConnell and other bases restrict takeoffs and landings during those periods.

But when it really gets cold, geese are kind of like people: They don't like to get up and take off.

"So we go out there at first light and get them off their butts," Caister said. "We want them away from the flight paths" before the base air traffic begins.

The work doesn't stop there, because the geese usually land in fields — corn and winter wheat are their favorites — to begin eating. That's too close.

"If something startles them, like a truck going by or a neighborhood dog, they may flush when a plane is going over," Caister said.

So Vasi pushes them farther east. Caister uses a shepherd's whistle and voice commands to direct Vasi.

"But she's also a free thinker, not a robot," Caister said. "She'll go toward water because she knows there may be more down there."

Before any perimeter work can be done, the base had to get permission from the landowners so Caister and Vasi could go on their properties and move the geese.

Caister said 95 percent of the approximately 120 landowners have given their permission. The holdouts leave a safe zone for the geese.

"And the geese know it," she said. "They'll sit right up to the property line. They're smart. They know they're in a safe area."

Moving the geese off the neighborhood ponds and yards is important because they are content to sit and wait until Caister and Vasi leave and then return to the nearby field to resume eating.

"Geese are energy-efficient," Caister said. "They know it takes less energy to wait us out than it does to fly miles to find fields on the west side of Wichita.

"Birds are a lot smarter than people given them credit for."

Battling wits with wildlife can be challenging.

"To do this job well, you really have to internalize it," Caister said. "You take on that responsibility that these are my airmen.

"That's what gets you up when it's 5 below and out in knee-deep mud. But at the end of the day, you know you've accomplished something."

That's also when Vasi gets to go home with Caister and be a regular dog — sleeping on the couch.